Chani at Pattaya Open

Our top-ranked women’s tennis player, Chani Scheepers, will be in action in the Far East on Tuesday.

She’s playing the $220,000 PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand and the Harrismith-born player will be out to try and improve on her 80th spot on the Sony Ericsson Tour rankings list, writes Mark Etheridge.

Scheepers, back in South Africa recently where she took in the SA Open at Montecasino, Johannesburg, comes up against Germany’s Tatjana Malek in the first round. Malek was the tournament’s last direct acceptance.

Scheepers, who reached the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne last month, will no doubt fancy her chances against the 134th ranked Malek when they meet in the first round.

They’ve faced each other on two previous occasions, both on hard-court surfaces, and are all-square going into their latest match. In 2008 Malek beat Scheepers 6-3 6-0 in a Luxembourg qualifying competition and then last year Scheepers prevailed in Kuala Lumpur where she went through 4-6 6-2 6-3 in a Round of 16 match-up.